ISRO is actively striving to increase the coverage of its Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (NavIC) beyond the Indian border from 1,500 km to 3,000 km, according to ISRO Chairman S Somanath.
He made the statement during the CSIR Foundation Day ceremony at Bharat Mandapam, where he also emphasized ISRO’s continuous efforts to improve navigation coverage.
NavIC, with a constellation of seven satellites and a network of ground stations that operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, plays a critical role in navigation and positioning services in Bharat. Three of these satellites are geostationary, while the other four are inclined geosynchronous. Control centers, precision timing facilities, range and integrity monitoring stations, and two-way ranging stations are all part of the ground network.
By extending NavIC’s coverage beyond the Indian border, its signals would be available in adjacent countries and South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries. This coverage expansion will need the deployment of more navigation satellites.
NavIC now has two modes of operation – Standard Position Service (SPS) for civilian customers and Restricted Service (RS) for strategic users such as security agencies and military forces. Power grid synchronization, public car safety, real-time railway information systems, fisherman safety, geofencing, missile navigation, and other applications are supported.